Konor Campaign
The Konor Campaign was a war fought in the Konor System of the Realm of Ultramar between the forces of the Imperium of Man and the Forces of Chaos in service to the Plague God Nurgle as part of the larger conflict known as the Plague Wars in the early 42nd Millennium. The Konor System was a vital component of Ultramar, the pocket stellar empire controlled by the Ultramarines Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes from its homeworld of Macragge. Konor was the home of the Adeptus Mechanicus Forge World of the same name and its moon Gantz, also a Forge World of equal repute. Together, the two supplied most of the weapons, vehicles and other equipment used by the Ultramarines. Konor had also been named one of the four worlds to host a ruling Tetrarch of Ultramar after the resurrected Primarch Roboute Guilliman's return to aid the defence of his home realm following the end of his Indomitus Crusade. The Konor System's fall to Chaos would have dealt a devastating blow to the Ultramarines' war effort and greatly hastened the day when Ultramar itself became the newest demesne of the Plague God in realspace. In the end, despite appalling losses, the Konor System was saved by the strenuous efforts of the Imperium's defenders from falling to the designs of Nurgle, though the cost proved to be the utter destruction of the sixth planet in the system, the Death World of Loebos. History The Plague Wars When the Plague Wars began, Ultramar burned. The putrid warbands of the Death Guard, led by the Daemon Primarch Mortarion, launched a furious assault upon the Ultramarines' stellar empire. This eruption of all-out war threatened to drown the stars themselves in bloodshed and terror. Legions of Heretic Astartes and Chaos-spawned monstrosities have already rampaged across world after world, spreading the malignant corruption of the Dark Gods in their wake. Yet all hope is not lost. The return of the Primarch Roboute Guilliman to the region with the end of the Indomitus Crusade has stalled the seemingly unstoppable momentum of the Chaos advance. In a series of bloody battles, the armies of the Imperium -- reinforced with mighty Primaris Space Marines -- have reclaimed many worlds thought lost, forcing their hated foes to retreat and regroup. The worshippers of Chaos sought to regain their advantage by smashing a path through the Imperial battle line to Macragge, homeworld of the Ultramarines. Had they succeeded, the greatest Imperial stronghold in the sector would have been gravely threatened, and Guilliman's forces cut-off and surrounded. To achieve this end, the Forces of Chaos had to conquer the well-located Konor System. Powered by the industrial might of the Forge World of Konor, this centre of produce and production feeds the Imperial war machine with vital shipments of munitions and machinery. Populous and prosperous, with a large and well-equipped defence force, the Konor System embodies the glorious dream that is Ultramar. Crucially, it also guarded one of the few stable Warp transit routes to the Macragge System. If the Chaos advance was not halted, Konor would have fallen, and a path to the heartland of Ultramar would be laid bare to the forces of the Ruinous Powers. Yet the warriors of the Adeptus Astartes had no intention of ceding their rightful domain without a fight. The Ultramarines stood against the Chaos onslaught with nobility and courage, smiting the foe with Bolter and blade. And they are not alone. The military sledgehammer of the Astra Militarum rumbled into action, an armoured fist of devastating tank columns and endless regiments of soldiers that ground all before it into ashes and dust. Scattered Space Marine Chapters rushed fresh reinforcements to the war zone, seeking to aid their embattled kin. Enigmatic Tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus sent forth their legions of steel, and mighty Imperial Knights bestrode the slaughter like ancient gods of war. Every single warrior -- every Bolter round and bomb -- was vital, for the Chaos host sweeping across the Konor System was vast beyond imagining. Warriors of the Death Guard marched implacably forward, enemy fire spattering harmlessly from their rusted, ancient Power Armour and pallid, twisted flesh. In return, they unleashed bombardments of noxious toxins and flesh-melting plagues. Daemonic legions surge alongside the Chaos advance, exulting in the chance to wreak torment across the material realm. Warbands of Heretic Astartes, millions upon millions of depraved mortal Chaos Cultists, and a thousand other horrors converged upon Konor, drawn to its aura of agony and death like sharks to blood. Circling this firestorm of destruction were predatory xenos races, ever seeking to further their own mysterious ends. Orks surged into the war in their millions, delighting in the spreading carnage. Craftworld Aeldari and Drukhari circled from afar, offering their services as mercenaries to both sides or launching raids to fulfill some unknowable agenda. Tyranid and T'au forces spilled in from the Eastern Fringe, capitalising on or drawn by the escalating conflict, while even the Necrons sent undying invasion forces to exploit the infighting of the younger races and expand their ancient empires. No part of the Konor System was left unscarred by the war. If the Heretic Astartes' plans came to fruition, the system's own worlds would have been weaponised and turned against Ultramar. The Forces of Chaos intended to force open a route to Macragge, and that shining light of the Imperium would face obliteration. Battle of Astaramis of Astaramis]] Astaramis is a well-ordered and heavily defended Imperial Hive World, the third world of the Konor System, its largest centre of population, and a potent symbol of Imperial dominance. Having gathered significant momentum with their early victories on the outskirts of the Konor System during the Plague Wars, the armies of Chaos spread out across the region like poison seeping into the blood stream of the Imperium. A vast segment of the Chaos armada descended upon Astaramis, the most populous planet in the system. With its teeming cities arranged in vast concentric rings, the well-governed and prosperous Hive World exemplified the grand dream that is Ultramar. However, even Astaramis' formidable orbital defence platforms and veteran garrison were not enough to hold back the oncoming tide. The Chaos armada launched waves of Magmatic Torpedoes, and Macrocannons obliterated planetary fortifications and engulfed entire regiments of defenders in searing firestorms. Heretic Astartes and their allies slammed to earth in blistering Drop Pod assaults, blasting apart anything that moved even as they marched implacably onwards towards targets of strategic value. During the Great Crusade, the Ultramarines Primarch Roboute Guilliman made landfall upon Astaramis. In the long standard centuries since, the population of Astaramis has come to regard him as a saint, raising vast statues and temples in his name. Hearts emboldened by the revelation that Guilliman had risen from his millennia-long slumber to defend Humanity once more following the Ultramar Campaign of 999.M41, they fought on bravely in the face of an unceasing onslaught. From the shrines of Saviour's Landing to the vast and imposing Quintus Gate, the streets echoed with the unceasing chatter of las-fire and the dull thud of Bolters and high-explosive rounds. Yet for all the tenaciousness and devotion shown by the people of Astaramis, they could not stand alone. With every passing solar hour, the invaders pushed further inward, taking hab-block after hab-block. Xenos forces were also spotted planetside, exploiting the confusion of battle in order to kill, loot or pursue their unknowable ends. Imperial forces were forced back as far as the hive's innermost spires, and the outer districts were little more than a rubble-strewn wasteland. Without reinforcements, Chaos would have gutted the Imperium's greatest source of manpower in the Konor System, and destroyed a potent symbol of Imperial faith. Yet, in the end, Astraramis stood against all that was thrown against it. The Forces of Chaos brought terror and death to this gleaming Hive World, but the Imperial Aquila yet flies from its tallest spires. The Forces of Chaos fell upon Astaramis like slavering wolves, bringing ruin and horror to this once proud monument of Ultramar's glory. Yet, as the smoke cleared and the echo of gunfire ceased, the Hive World remained standing, battered but unbroken. Despite suffering horrific casualties during the early stages of the Chaos onslaught, the armies of the Imperium dug in with rugged determination, hurling back each fresh assault with blistering cascades of las and Bolter fire, turning to knives, makeshift weapons and fists when the slaughter boiled over into hand-to-hand combat. Try as they might, the Chaos invaders could not break the defenders' spirits, nor scour them from their fortifications. Their rage and frustration was only exacerbated by a series of lightning attacks by the Aeldari of the Craftworlds, who emerged from the hidden Labyrinth Dimension of the Webway to slice into the rear of the Chaos formations. There was no formal alliance between the Imperium and these deadly raiders, but the Aeldari ever follow their own mysterious whims. Fusillades of shuriken fire and pinpoint lances of searing energy tore through the unsuspecting ranks of the invaders, and even as they regrouped and reformed, the xenos disappeared from whence they came, leaving nothing but the smoking bodies of their victims behind. This flanking assault badly stalled the Chaos advance, buying precious time for Primaris Space Marine reinforcements to arrive on Astaramis. Unable to force a breakthrough at the vital Praxima Skyport, the massed heretical legions could only watch with furious hatred as fresh regiments of grim-faced warriors and columns of heavy armour made planetfall, rushing to shore up gaps in the Imperial line wherever they emerged. Inch by bloody inch, the Chaos invasion force was pushed back to the outer hab-zones of the hive cities, and the flag of Ultramar was raised proudly upon the highest spire of Saviour's Landing -- a symbol of defiance and Imperial might that girded the heart of every Loyalist warrior. In the wake of this vital victory, Imperial High Command immediately ramped up the production of munitions on Astaramis, and issued a decree requiring every man and woman of fighting age to take up arms in the defence of Ultramar. Such a vast resource of manpower was vital in the battles to come, for the war in the Konor System was far from over. Battle of Konor of Konor]] As a Forge World of the Adeptus Mechanicus and the second world of the Konor System, Konor is a vital cog in the war machine of Ultramar, its sprawling manufactorum districts pumping out a ceaseless stream of weapons, ammunition and battle tanks. Konor is the manufacturing and fuel-producing capital of its eponymous system, and thus this Forge World was a vital target for both Imperial and Chaos forces during the Plague Wars. The Death Guard and their allies assembled a vast invasion force for the conquest of the planet, including detachments of xenos mercenaries and millions-strong hordes of fanatical cultists. Manpower was vital in the attritional conflict to come. The Chaos assault on Konor opened with an apocalyptic orbital bombardment, plague-ridden Space Hulks and Chaos ''Despoiler''-class warships ravaging the holdings and armies of the Adeptus Mechanicus with waves of inferno missiles and toxin cascades, churning the planet's atmosphere into a hellish cocktail of flesh-melting viruses and choking smoke. Almost half of Konor's industrial capability was utterly demolished during the initial assault, and the invaders landed an increasing tide of troops planetside. The prodigious level of destruction was judged appropriate by the Heretic Astartes commanders responsible for prosecuting the slaughter, for even with so many manufactorum districts shattered, Konor was still capable of pumping out colossal quantities of battle tanks and munitions. With the billions of slaves claimed by the invasion fleet put to work in the manufactoria, the Forge World would produce even more still should it fall under Chaos control. The Imperium of Mankind's war effort in the Konor System, and indeed the wider conflict raging across Ultramar, would be severely derailed if Konor was lost to Chaos. Thus, the Imperial High Command authorised the despatching of several armies to relieve the besieged defenders. Archmagos Gother Zymus and his Skitarii Legions yet retained control of Forge Temple Cladis and its surrounding domain, and were aided in their stubborn defence by the Imperial Knights of House Raven. Yet outside their rapidly receding kill-quadrants and excoriation zones, the enemy pressed ever closer, with heavily armoured assault troops and Daemon Engines grinding their way through the shattered innards of manufactorums and hab-arcologies. In this hellish no man;s land, squads of dead-eyed killers stalked the choking sprawl for fresh prey, looking to secure key objectives such as Vox relays, Promethium refineries and precious intact generatorums. After days of bloody fighting, the Imperium regained control of Konor. Its sprawling manufactorum districts were soon pumping out fresh munitions and weapons once more for the Imperial war effort. Their armies reinforced by fresh conscripts and supplies after the victory at Astaramis, the Konor System's defenders entered the raging battle for the Forge World of Konor with eager fury. They found themselves battling through a nightmarish hellscape of industrial devastation, a maze of shattered manufactorums and debris-strewn labour-halls where they were as likely to be sliced into pieces by malfunctioning machinery as they were to be slain by one of the roving bands of Chaos marauders that haunted the ash-choked streets. Worse still, hordes of opportunistic Orks had descended upon the stricken Forge World, seeking to strip as much scrap metal and fuel as possible from Konor's vast reserves. These violent looters were equally dangerous to the forces of the Imperium and the Chaos invaders, as they rampaged across Konor in their smoke-spewing war machines, hacking and bludgeoning to death any unfortunate enough to cross their path. Nevertheless, the soldiers of the Imperium went about their task with grim courage, pushing through the ravaged districts towards vital strategic targets. In a bloody and attritional grind, elite units of Adeptus Astartes warriors forced back their hated foes, the Traitor Marines. Terminator and Aggressor armour clashed and sparked under ceaseless volleys of Bolter fire, and Dreadnoughts and monstrous Daemon Engines rumbled through the carnage, crushing and blasting the life from their foes. Many heroes fell in this crucible of slaughter. Yet, with freshly bolstered detachments of well-armed Astra Militarum veterans at their side, the Loyalist counter-assault overwhelmed the embattled Chaos forces. Though victory came at a heavy cost, Imperial control of Konor was secured, and a sizeable percentage of its precious production capability remained operational. Within solar hours of the battle's end, the Forge World's recaptured manufactorums and assembly halls were sanctified with machine blessings and reactivated, and began to churn out vital equipment and machinery for the escalating war effort across Ultramar. Battle of Nethamus of Nethamus]] Nethamus is an Imperial Agri-world that is the first planet of the Konor System. Long the breadbasket of the Konor System, Nethamus' vast crop oceans and synth-silo complexes feed countless trillions of loyal souls across the system. Having brought the horror of total war to both the Konor System's manufacturing capital at Konor itself and its central source of recruits on Astaramis, the Chaos invasion fleet next sought to deny the Imperial defenders sustenance. By corrupting the breadbasket of Nethamus -- a massive, temperate Agri-World whose enormous crop oceans stretch for thousands upon thousands of miles -- the Forces of Chaos intended to starve their prey. Without Nethamus' vital food supplies, the enormous military engine of the Astra Militarum would grind to a halt. Even more deviously, the Death Guard and their allies could begin the process of distributing tainted produce throughout Ultramar. Once consumed, this plague-ridden foodstuff created an unending hunger that would tempt millions of mortal souls toward embracing the bountiful gifts of Nurgle. Yet the Imperium, by now all too aware of the doom approaching Nethamus, had prepared a doomsday response. Soldiers and agri-workers loaded crop reserves upon vast factory-crawlers, as well as synthesizer silos capable of producing enough food to sustain the ongoing defence of the Konor System. Orbiting Imperial Battleships rained Magmatic Bombs across the planet, incinerating vast swathes of land. As the first Death Guard troops made planetfall, they unleashed their virulent contagions into the atmosphere. The spreading blight was met on all sides by colossal walls of swirling flame, or vast stretches of barren wasteland, where clouds of ash mixed with daemonic spores to create a putrid toxic rain. The corruption of Nethamus was stalled, but if the Imperial defenders could not hold the attackers at bay, all their efforts would be for naught. The Chaos forces' armoured formations launched assault after assault upon the mobile factory-crawlers. The bravery of the Astra Militarum and Adeptus Astartes tank crews held them at bay, but many isolated crawlers were surrounded and blasted apart, or boarded by vengeful Chaos warriors, the agri-workers inside butchered and their precious cargo despoiled. If the Imperial forces continued to lose their factory-crawlers at such a rate, famine would soon spread across the Konor System and the surrounding region in a matter of solar weeks. Yet, in the end, though inferno storms devoured most of Nethamus' southern continent, the Agri-World's precious grain-silos remained in operation. The Konor System did not starve. Fresh from their victory at Konor, the armies of the Imperium made for the Agri-World of Nethamus, the vital food basket of the system. Their numbers were bolstered by reinforcements from the reclaimed Forge World, including legions of Skitarii and rumbling war machines. These troops would be vital in the battle for Nethamus, for the twisted Daemon Engines and corrupted armour of Chaos already stalked the Agri-World's blighted surface. Drukhari Reavers had also been sighted, racing across the vast open plains in their agile skycraft. These sadistic killers revelled in the terror and confusion of the conflict, appearing from nowhere like creatures from some terrible nightmare, snatching unfortunate souls away to serve as slaves and tormented playthings in the Dark City of Commorragh. Some of the fiercest fighting would take place at The Neck, the mountainous valley region that connected the incinerated southern continent to the north, where the few remaining factory-crawlers still carried a precious cargo of produce. The ground was churned to an ashen wasteland beneath torrents of high-explosive shells, as regiments of Imperial tanks formed an impenetrable wall of steel, denying every inch of ground to their hated foes. This heroic defence bought precious time for Convoy Druseus -- the largest gathering of factory-crawlers and its armoured defenders -- to reach a defensible position amidst the northern valleys. As Heretic forces closed in on all fronts, the convoy halted and its defenders hastily established fortifications, trenches and Sentry Gun arrays. In an earth-shaking tank duel, the Imperial forces drove back the assault, blasting apart Daemon Engine and corrupted tank alike, until the field was littered with the smoking wreckage of hundreds of vehicles, and the surviving enemies were forced to retreat. The planetary capital city of Khorsis, for so long the last bastion of Imperial defenders on the planet, was finally retaken several solar days later, though by the time the last pockets of Chaos resistance had been scoured from their lairs, the great agri-hive was little more than a burned-out husk. Nethamus, though riven by firestorms and choked by roiling clouds of smoke, still clung to life. More and more Imperial reinforcements arrived planetside, and soon the factory-crawlers were surrounded by fortifications such as defence lines and Vengeance Weapon Batteries, and guarded by regiments of grim-faced Astra Militarum soldiers. With vital medical supplies and food reserves secured, the defence of the Konor System continued apace on its other worlds. Battle of Vanitor of Vanitor]] Vanitor is an Imperial Frontier World and wilderness world that is the fourth planet of the Konor System. Vanitor is a harsh and windswept world that houses the Konor System's astropathic relay. Without this key communications outpost, the system would be left completely isolated from the wider Imperium. The Konorian Astropathic Relay, situated upon the wilderness world of Vanitor and guarded by a vast fortress basilica, once linked the Konor System's Imperial defence force to the greater war effort across Ultramar. It was one of the first targets overwhelmed in the initial blitz of the Chaos invasion, for severing this line of communication left the Konor System shrouded in darkness and confusion. Despite a brave stand, the Departmento Munitorum forces responsible for maintaining and defending the facility were encircled and slaughtered. The relay's astropathic choir were ritually bound and excruciated by Chaos Sorcerers, and the sheer agony of their torment -- amplified by the unfortunate beings' raw psychic power -- became a shining beacon to the ravenous monstrosities of the Warp. This piercing psychic scream soon came to the attention of the Grey Knights, who had swiftly identified the growing conflict in Ultramar as a potential lodestone that would draw entities from the roiling depths of the Immaterium into realspace. The grim brotherhood of Daemon Hunters knew that to allow this psychic beacon to continue to broadcast its vile signal would ultimately invite the horror of a sector-wide daemonic incursion. Gathering allies to their side, the Grey Knights assembled several strike forces and fell upon the corrupted defenders of Vanitor with merciless brutality, hacking apart Chaos-spawned horrors and their wretched masters. Yet even the Grey Knights could not accurately grasp the nightmare that was spreading across this windswept wilderness world. Upon the great plains, vast Warp breaches vomited the rancid deluge of the Empyrean into reality. Amidst the soaring Tremantaen Mountains, Heretic Astartes and their foul minions dug in like ticks, creating a circle of rockcrete redoubts around the relay, which rested atop the highest peak. Blizzards of frozen blood and transmutative hurricanes whipped through these mountain passes, birthing new flyblown horrors or flaying the flesh from those foolish enough to brave the open air. At the Konorian Relay itself, Chaos forces defended their tortured wards with savage determination, unleashing blistering cascades of gunfire and artillery upon those who looked to breach the corrupted basilica walls. If the Imperials could not break through this formidable barrier, the agony of the tortured Astropaths would only flare brighter, drowning Vanitor in the surging tides of the Warp. Surely the damnation of the entire Konor System was sure to swiftly follow. Vanitor writhed with corruption, and the roiling Warp Storms that ravaged its surface brought vast hosts of daemons into reality. Chaos forces had taken Vanitor early in the war for the Konor System, slaughtering its unprepared Imperial defenders with ease. By maintaining the furious momentum of their planetary assaults, the followers of the Dark Gods had managed to keep their foe staggered and confused, and unaware of the potential cataclysm that was brewing upon the isolated wilderness world. Yet the growing psychic disruption caused by its tormented choir of astropaths could not be masked for long. Finally freed from the apocalyptic wasteland of fire-ravaged Nethamus, Imperial fleets made for Vanitor at top speed. Having been unsuccessful in their attempts to starve the Konor System into submission by destroying Nethamus' food production capability, it was vital for the Chaos forces to maintain control of Vanitor and its twisted psychic beacon. Vast armies of Heretic Astartes, mortal Chaos Cultists and corrupted war machines flocked to the planet, establishing a fearsome network of fortifications and killing zones. Led by the Daemon Hunters of the Grey Knights, the Imperial armies crashed into these defences, blasting them apart with ceaseless barrages of bunker-breaking artillery, and relentless assaults by infantry and towering war machines. The Loyalists were buoyed by their victory upon Nethamus, and were reinforced and well-supplied. The sheer sledgehammer might of the Astra Militarum's tank regiments ground millions of cultist defenders to bloody paste beneath their relentless advance, and even the elite Heretic Astartes were sorely pressed by the sheer ferocity of the attack. It was only the endless seeping of daemonic entities into reality, drawn like sharks to blood by the power of Vanitor's psychic emanations, that sealed the doom of the Imperial forces. Slowly, inevitably, the momentum of the Imperial assault was reversed, until its armies were in full retreat. Trapped between the murderous mountain forts and tides of daemons sweeping in from Warp breaches across the plains of Vanitor, the Imperials were soon surrounded. The subsequent carnage was appalling, as the hungry denizens of the Warp glutted their eternal hunger upon mortal flesh. Less than half of the Imperial invasion force escaped alive. As the tortured screams of the astropathic choir reached a piercing crescendo, the skies above Vanitor split apart like an open wound. Battle of Drenthal of Drenthal]] Drenthal is an Imperial Ocean World that is the fifth planet of the Konor System. A seemingly endless ocean covers Drenthal, dotted by island archipelagos and vast floating habitations. It is home to a number of large Imperial Navy Aeronautica Imperialis training academies. Due to its stable atmospherics, Drenthal has long been used as a training center by the Aeronautica Imperialis. Oceans cover almost ninety-five per cent of the planet's surface, so the flight academies of the Imperial Navy are contained upon colossal carriers, each as large as a small city and covered with landing strips, hangars and barracks. The rest of the world's population exists upon floating metropolises known as seasteads, or else make their home upon scattered archipelagos of bleached shard-coral. Situated near to the Forge World of Konor, Drenthal is a vast blue orb ringed by burning orbital stations and warring battleships. The remnants of the Konor Defence Fleet are trapped in orbit around the planet, encircled by a Chaos armada that vomits more landing ships into the Drenthal's upper atmosphere with every passing solar minute. The Ocean World's close proximity to Konor has made it an invaluable target for both Chaos and Imperial forces, as it is perfectly placed to stage counterattacks and naval bombardments of that vital war zone. The planet's orbital shipyards and gun platforms have already been atomized by Macrocannon fire and hull breaching missiles, but Drenthal's planetside defences have not yet been overrun. However, most of the seaborne habitations known as seasteads are now aflame, set alight by incendiary rockets and bombs unleashed by Chaos flyers. In those seasteads that still stand, and across the island archipelagos, Imperial defenders fight savagely for every scrap of land, fending off massed aerial assaults and naval invasions. Imperial drop troops and Primaris Space Marine Inceptor Squads fearlessly hurl themselves into the fray, hurtling down from low orbit to smash into the enemy ranks. Attack Bikes and Land Speeders roar across banks of treacherous shard-coral, knifing into the flanks of advancing columns with Bolters blazing. The ground battle is ferocious, but Drenthal's terrain is ill-suited to massed formations of armour and infantry, and so the fiercest battles rage in the skies above. Hell-forged drakes screech and whirl above the devastation, snatching Imperial transports out of the sky, or swooping low to incinerate terrified soldiers and civilians. Every Aeronautica Imperialis aircraft available is in the air, launching endless sorties against these daemon-forged monsters, supported by the Stormraven gunships of the Adeptus Astartes. Burning wreckage fell like rain across Drenthal. The Imperium, dreading the prospect of a Chaos victory, began to prepare a doomsday strategy to deny the Heretics their prize. Should all appear lost, Drenthal's fusion-powered drill platforms, which mined vital fuel-crystals from beneath the planet's crust, would be set to overcharge. The resultant geothermal trauma would tear Drenthal apart in a last act of spiteful defiance of the Plague God. Smoking wreckage fell across Drenthal's endless oceans like a meteor shower as the armies of Mankind sought to scour the legions of Chaos from the face of the planet. The enormous seasteads were set aflame, ignited by daemonic fire and hammered relentlessly by Traitor artillery. The virulent plagues of the Death Guard spread with horrifying speed amongst the remaining civilians. Imperial High Command swiftly came to a grim realisation -- Drenthal could not be saved. Instead, it must be denied to Chaos. By overcharging the titanic fusion drill housed at Terebral Station Sigma, the Imperials would finally unleash a tectonic catastrophe upon their hated foes. As the brutal fighting escalated in the cramped alleyways of the floating seastead hive cities, warriors splashed though tides of bilge water and spilt blood, past bloated corpses and shimmering Promethium slicks. The sense of havoc and confusion was only exacerbated by the actions of a hidden cult of xenos-worshipping traitors that had long lain dormant amidst the vore-whale tanneries and Promethium refineries of Drenthal. Forced to the surface by the war erupting all about them, these mutant killers slipped from sewer access hatches and bilge tunnels to fall upon any intruders, striking with swift and deadly force before retreating to their hidden lairs with purloined weapons and ammunition. Rumour spread of even worse horrors that crawled out of dark hiding holes to snatch away unsuspecting Imperial soldiers, dragging them screaming into the pitch blackness of the underwarrens. The battle also raged across Drenthal's scattered island archipelagos. Assault Bikes and Land Speeders roared across treacherous coral-dunes, the air echoing to the ceaseless chatter of pintle-mounted Bolters. As vicious as the ground war had become, the battle in the air was just as deadly. The full might of the Aeronautica Imperialis was unleashed upon the Chaos invaders, and vast wings of Stormravens and Valkyries met with flying Daemon Engines in a murderous storm of flak-bursts and blossoming explosions. At Terebral Station Sigma, the Forces of Chaos launched furious assaults against the Imperial occupiers, while Enginseers tried in vain to enact the machine-rituals necessary to sabotage the fusion drill, chanting desperate prayers to the Omnissiah as they worked. It was too late even for such desperate measures. A cabal of Chaos Sorcerers channelled the aura of savagery and carnage rippling across Drenthal, and tore open a wound in reality, spilling daemons into the cavernous drill chamber. In an orgy of bloodshed, the Enginseer work crews were slaughtered, and the destruction of Drenthal averted. The Ocean World proved a fine staging point for the assault by Chaos upon the rest of Ultramar. Battle of Loebos of Loebos]] Loebos was an Imperial Death World that was the sixth planet of the Konor System. Loebos was once an Aeldari Exodite World, until an Imperial invasion slaughtered the populace and rendered its World Spirit violently insane. The world came under sustained attack by the Forces of Chaos in service to Nurgle early in the Plague Wars, and the servants of the Plague God proved successful in claiming the planet. The oceans turned blood-red as butchered corpses bobbed and floated upon the surging tide and daemon-forged Heldrakes whirled and screeched in the skies overhead. As the war in the Konor System reached its crescendo, dire Vox reports filtered in from the far edge of the region. The Death World of Loebos hurtled across space like an enormous wrecking ball, trailing a vast cloud of spore-ridden asteroids and noxious gases. This was Mortarion's final gambit for the conquest of the Konor System -- a world weaponised, powered by continent-sized engines and the fell power of the Warp. If Loebos' furious momentum was not stopped, the system-wide war still raging would be rendered irrelevant. The Death World would barrel through the system like a plague comet, trailing corruption and death in its wake, infecting world after world with Nurgle's pestilential gifts. Long-range scans of the onrushing world have revealed the source of its momentum. Gargantuan fusion-powered Warp-Drive arrays cover Loebos' southern continent, flaring with the power of a supernova. These are engines that once powered a number of the Death Guard's vast Space Hulks, grotesque vessels from which Nurgle's chosen launch their raids into Imperial space. Through some form of dread Warpcraft, these enormous devices have been transferred to the surface of the Death World, and their colossal power has wrenched Loebos out of its circumsolar orbit around the star of Konoris and sent it speeding towards the heart of Ultramar. The only option left to Imperial High Command is to order an all-out assault upon the world, in the hope of sabotaging the Warp engines or destroying the planet itself with a well-placed Cyclonic charge. Such a task will not be easy. The Death Guard have established towering fortresses across the only viable landing sites on Loebos, and holo-picts indicate that Chaos forces are stationed across the equatorial belt in unthinkable numbers. Such a fearsome garrison would be terrible enough, but the planet of Loebos itself is perhaps the gravest threat to any who set foot upon its surface. Long ago the Imperium attempted to settle Loebos, only to discover that it was in fact an Aeldari world, populated by Exodite tribes. The fighting that followed was brutal, and the Aeldari population was massacred by regiments of Imperial heavy tanks and campaigns of intense firebombing. This wholesale slaughter sent Loebos' tormented World Spirit mad with grief and rage, and it lashed out at the invading humans with every weapon at its disposal. Loebos' flora and fauna fell upon the Imperial forces. Regiments of infantry were torn apart by razor-thorn vines, and tanks were dragged into bubbling acidic swamps. Only a fraction of the Imperial invasion force escaped Loebos alive. The corruption of Nurgle only exacerbated the world's vengeful insanity. Moats of foul corpse-water ridden with every toxin imaginable kept the Chaos defenders safe within their fortifications, but any troops fighting in the wilderness had no such protection. Every available force was directed towards Loebos immediately, for time ran short. The battle for Loebos was nothing like the Konor System had ever experienced, a nightmare of apocalyptic proportions. Thousands of vehicles and millions of warriors were ground up in a murderous meat grinder, and the environment itself sought to slaughter and devour the combatants, no matter their allegiance. Yet the Imperium had to destroy Loebos, by whatever means and no matter the cost, lest the war for the Konor System ended in system-wide devastation. There was no sense in the Imperium of Man withholding forces from the assault upon Loebos, for if the corrupted Death World remained on its relentless course, there would be little of the Konor System remaining to save. As the planet soared through space, trailing Warp energies in its wake, the Imperial Navy launched every transport ship, cargo hulk and Battlecruiser available, each vessel packed with soldiers and vehicles. This makeshift fleet made for low orbit, even as the vast Chaos armada escorting the Death World blasted thousands out of the skies in an eruption of coruscating fireballs. of Loebos shatters, saving the Konor System from destruction at the hands of the servants of Nurgle]] Though the first wave of the planetary assault was almost entirely obliterated by ground fire or torn apart by circling clouds of Plague Drones, the second and third made landfall. Even as the Loyalist troops rushed forth to pre-designated positions, the maddened forests of Loebos came alive around them; barbed vines snatched screaming troopers away into the shadows, crystal-bladed trees impaled tanks and combat walkers, and pools of sizzling acid devoured landing ships whole. Yet, led onwards by the fearless champions of the Adeptus Astartes, the Imperial advance pushed through the lethal wilds, through vicious enemy fire and the worst that the maddened Death World could throw at them. Soon, the great Death Guard fortresses of the Trifectum Putris were crumbling under a relentless firestorm of super-heavy tank shells. At the Circle of Mehnauris, the raging centre of the World Spirit's agonised torment, a shimmering portal emerged and disgorged ranks of agile, graceful warriors and speeding grav-tanks. The Aeldari had returned to their shattered world, and they brought with them the righteous fury of vengeance. With sword and Shuriken Cannon they struck at the contamination that had so corrupted Loebos, shattering the foul icons of Chaos that littered its surface, and slaughtering any worshippers of the Dark Gods they laid eyes upon. Some Craftworld warhosts, fueled by grief and horror at the fate of Loebos, took the opportunity to enact their revenge against the Imperium's warriors, who had so long ago savaged this once pristine world. Yet the majority of their wrath was spared for the servants of the Dark Gods, from whom they enacted a bloody toll before vanishing back into the Webway. Meanwhile, strike teams of elite Imperial warriors breached the Chaos perimeter at the Decay of Hope, the largest of the deconstructed Space Hulks powering the Death World's unnatural momentum. They ventured deep into the Warp-touched halls of that dread vessel, encountering mind-shattering nightmares and slavering, flyblown horrors with every step forward. At unthinkable cost, they advanced as far as the fusion core of the great engine array, where they manually detonated a Cyclonic warhead. The resultant cataclysmic explosion enveloped the entire southern continent of Loebos in a coruscating firestorm, setting off a series of chain reactions that ruptured the planetary core. As the remnant of the Imperial forces desperately fell back to evacuation points and made for high orbit upon the remaining transport ships, the tortured world of Loebos began to come apart. In an eruption of white light, the Death World detonated. Huge chunks of the planet were sent rocketing through space, shredding Imperial and Chaos vessels alike, yet no neighbouring world of the Konor System was touched by the devastation. With the death of Loebos, the Konor System had been saved from utter ruin. Fate of Konor Summer Campaign The Konor System was the location for the 2017 worldwide Fate of Konor Summer Campaign, conducted by Games Workshop to herald the arrival of the 8th Edition of the Warhammer 40,000 tabletop war game. Each week, players at officially-recognised locations around the world, such as various game and hobby stores, would play a series of campaigns set on each world of the Konor System, representing either the Imperial defenders or the attackers of Chaos. Each battle's outcome was then logged with Games Workshop's Warhammer 40,000 website. The collective outcome of all those battles determined which force ultimately won canonical control of each planet in the system during the Plague Wars. Sources *Galaxy in Flames: Fate of Konor Campaign *Week One: Astaramis *Imperial Victory on Astaramis *Week Two: Konor *Imperial Victory on Konor *Week Three: Nethamus *Imperial Victory on Nethamus *Week Four: Vanitor *Chaos Victory on Vanitor *Week Five: Drenthal *Chaos Victory on Drenthal *Week Six: Loebos *Imperial Victory on Loebos Category:K Category:Campaigns Category:Chaos Category:Chaos Campaigns Category:Chaos Space Marines Category:Dark Eldar Category:Eldar Category:History Category:Imperial Campaigns Category:Imperial History Category:Imperium Category:Necron Category:Ork Category:Space Marines Category:Tau Category:Ultramarines Category:Xenos Campaigns